Subj : codepage
To   : Rob Swindell
From : Michiel van der Vlist
Date : Mon Mar 06 2023 09:41 pm

Hello Rob,

On Sunday March 05 2023 11:40, you wrote to me:

 >> I see... So it is the terminal - or whatever functions as its
 >> equivalent - and only the terminal that determines the encoding of the
 >> message at hand.

 RS> Or rather, the message content created with that terminal. If the
 RS> content is just plain ASCII, regardless of the terminal that created
 RS> it, then the message will fly the ASCII charset flag. In Synchronet, a
 RS> CP437 terminal cannot be used to created UTF-8 content, so messages
 RS> created by such a terminal will either be ASCII or CP437 encoded.

Understood.

 >>  RS> The only encodings Synchronet supports for message text are
 >>  RS> ASCII, CP437, and UTF-8.
 >>
 >> Hmmm... That leaves out a big part of Fidonet. These days the
 >> majority, maybe the vast majority is writen in a language that uses
 >> the Cyrillic alfabet and the encoding is CP866.

 RS> True, that's the state of things.

Well, at least those needing more that CP437 can use UTF-8.

 >>  >> So what happens in that case if the terminal does not support
 >>  >> UTF-8?
 >>
 >>  RS> The message text would be converted to CP437 before being
 >>  RS> quoted and the response would be in CP437.
 >>
 >> And now I come back to my previous question: what happens if it
 >> does not fit into CP437? That can easely happen. A Euro sign '¿'
 >> can be composed in UTF-8 but it  does not fit into CP437.

I see that the EURO sign is translated into an inverted question mark.

 RS> When a CP437 terminal user quotes a UTF-8 message that contains
 RS> untranslatable UNICODE codepoints without a CP437 equivalent, they're
 RS> translated to character that indiciates it was untranslatable. By
 RS> default, that character is the upside down question mark.

Check.

Next question: Can Synchonet deal with a UTF-8 encoded nodelist?

Here is where to find one: http://www.vlist.eu/downloads/fidolist/z2daily.065



Cheers, Michiel

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